So, with the musical matters covered, let's turn our attention to wine.
When the Merry Frockster turned up on the doorstep with the mail that had accumulated over the time we'd been away in Western Australia I wasn't expecting a copy of James Halliday's The Australian Wine Encyclopedia, but there it was, presumably as a result of taking out a two-year subscription to Halliday's ubiquitous winery reference.
An encyclopedia isn't the sort of thing that you read from cover to cover, and I was browsing away quietly one afternoon when a reference to Steve and Rhonda Doyle of Bloodwood Wines, producers of a Rose called Big Men In Tights caught my eye.
I knew a Steve Doyle in Townsville in the early seventies, he had a girlfriend named Rhonda, and there was something about Big Men In Tights that seemed consistent with a sign advising visitors to leave their guns and bolsters outside when visiting a well known student residence at the top of a hill in West End.
But if you don't ask you don't find out.
Stranger things than discovering an acquaintance from JCUNQ is running a five star winery in Orange have been known to occur, and when it was confirmed that these were, the same people a detour into Orange was an obvious addition to the itinerary for any excursion towards Canberra.
In the meantime, predictably, we needed a chance to try the product, and a phone call provided an opportunity for a little catching up as well as delivering a mixed dozen to the Little House of Concrete in time for the summer festivities.
Given the seasonal considerations, half a dozen Big Men was an obvious starting point, and I'd rounded things out with three Rieslings, and one each of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and the Maurice red blend.
The Maurice is still lurking in the rack, but with one of the Rieslings still lurking in the fridge, and the last Big Man In Tights accompanying us so it can be sprung on AFL-crazy acquaintances on the Gold Coast we'll be needing a resupply.
Which, of course, brings us to the potentially thorny question of where else to visit en route as far as wine is concerned. There are a number of issues here.
A quick run around the fingers produced a good dozen wineries I'm already buying from regularly, and there are limits to how much wine we can order and drink.
The first week of the trip, being centred around music, was, effectively Hughesy's time and Madam deserves a fair go, remembering that, left to himself, Hughesy would be quite content to ramble through a wine region, sampling as much of what was on offer as possible and prompting serious time issues for the driver.
If the winery in question has scenic aspects or other items of photographic interest, that isn't a problem, but a touring itinerary along the lines of Great Picturesque Wineries of New South Wales would still be a bridge too far.
Given the fact that I'd like to spend a bit of time catching up at Bloodwood, which is an overnight stop with the markets of Canberra beckoning on Sunday morning, once we decided to wait till after the Easter long weekend before heading south, that'll more than likely be it for Orange.
A check of the wineries in the Canberra District revealed many of them are closed Tuesday and Wednesday, so if you're arriving Sunday and leaving Wednesday, that only leaved Monday as a tasting day, with experience suggesting that anything more than four wineries in a day is pushing the envelope, that's probably going to be it in the tasting department.
There's a further factor to consider here.
A glance at the websites suggest small wineries with limited ranges, so it might be possible to stretch things a little, particularly when lunch is thrown into the equation. Local knowledge will be of paramount importance, and, fortunately, we'll be able to access some, in the form of the inimitable form of my long-lost former colleague.
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